Amazon's Kindle Fire tablets are already some of the cheapest slates you can buy, but that's not good enough for Amazon. The online retailer wants to make it even easier on the pocketbook to pick up a Fire HDX for the holidays with new payment installment plans for both the Kindle Fire HDX and the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9.

Under the terms of the deal, prospective Kindle shoppers choose either the HDX or the HDX 8.9 and pay 25 percent of the device cost up front, plus any applicable taxes and shipping. Then Amazon ships the device to you and will charge your credit card three more times—once every 90 days—to recoup the remainder of the tablet's price.

Pricing for the Kindle Fire HDX starts at $229 and the HDX 8.9 begins at $269, meaning your four installments for the basic models (with special offers) will cost you $94.75 and $57.25 respectively.

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Amazon's payment scheme is fairly generous. The company won't charge you any fees during the installment period, such as interest or finance charges. It also promises no hidden fees or even a credit check before shipping the device.

But the company isn't without recourse to handle Kindle Fire deadbeats. In the terms & conditions, Amazon says it has the right to cut off access to Amazon services and content if you don't pay.

A Trojan horse

That'd no doubt be a last resort, however. Amazon's not lowering the barrier to Kindle Fire entry out of the kindness of Jeff Bezos' heart: A recent survey indicated that Kindle owners spend $443 more per year on Amazon's e-wares than non-Kindle owners. Amazon's tablets (and their custom Android-based operating system) are hand-crafted to suck users into Amazon's universe.

Whether or not you'll be able to take advantage of the deal, however, depends on a few criteria. You have to be a resident of the U.S., with the exception of Florida and Washington, D.C. where the deal is not available. Your Amazon account must have been active for at least two years, and your credit card on file must be valid until at least March 31, 2014.

Amazon's latest Fire tablets were introduced in the fall. Both received high marks in our reviews, offering lightweight designs, solid battery life, and a stunning display on the HDX 8.9. The Kindle Fire HDX features a 7-inch display with 1920-by-1200 resolution, 2GB of RAM, a 2.2GHz quad-core processor, a front-facing webcam, and 16GB of onboard storage with the base model. The HDX 8.9 offers an 8.9-inch display with 2560-by-1600 resolution, 2GB of RAM, a 2.2GHz quad-core processor, an 8MP rear-facing camera, a front-facing Webcam, and 16GB onboard storage with the base model.

This story, "Amazon rolls out interest-free payment plans for Kindle Fire HDX tablets" was originally published by
TechHive.

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Ian is an independent writer based in Israel who has never met a tech subject he didn't like. He primarily covers Windows, PC and gaming hardware, video and music streaming services, social networks, and browsers. When he's not covering the news he's working on how-to tips for PC users, or tuning his eGPU setup.